Whitened Resumes: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kang, Sonia K.; DeCelles, Katherine A.; Tilcsik, Andras; Jun, Sora
• 署名单位: University of Toronto; University of Toronto; University of Toronto; Stanford University
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.1177/0001839216639577
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 469-502
• 关键词: EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION; STEREOTYPE CONTENT; field experiment; job; STIGMATIZATION; PREJUDICE; americans; MODEL; men

摘要

Using interviews, a laboratory experiment, and a resume audit study, we examine racial minorities' attempts to avoid anticipated discrimination in labor markets by concealing or downplaying racial cues in job applications, a practice known as resume whitening. Interviews with racial minority university students reveal that while some minority job seekers reject this practice, others view it as essential and use a variety of whitening techniques. Building on the qualitative findings, we conduct a lab study to examine how racial minority job seekers change their resumes in response to different job postings. Results show that when targeting an employer that presents itself as valuing diversity, minority job applicants engage in relatively little resume whitening and thus submit more racially transparent resumes. Yet our audit study of how employers respond to whitened and unwhitened resumes shows that organizational diversity statements are not actually associated with reduced discrimination against unwhitened resumes. Taken together, these findings suggest a paradox: minorities may be particularly likely to experience disadvantage when they apply to ostensibly pro-diversity employers. These findings illuminate the role of racial concealment and transparency in modern labor markets and point to an important interplay between the self-presentation of employers and the self-presentation of job seekers in shaping economic inequality.